HTR: A framework for interconnecting wireless heterogeneous devices

The last two decades have witnessed major advances in the wireless communication area, which have been supported by the increasing capabilities of portable devices, such as notebooks, tablets, cellular phones, smart phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Today, they provide a rich computing environment and incorporate different radio technologies. Despite of network diversity, a great deal of research in the field of mobile ad hoc networks focuses on a single and isolated wireless technology at a time, with homogeneous elements identified by IP addresses. This work proposes a Heterogeneous Technology Routing Framework (HTR), targeted towards scenarios where the heterogeneity of devices and networking technologies is present. Our contribution is twofold. It consists of a framework, which encompasses a process for bootstrapping networks, and a routing protocol capable of dealing with multiple network interfaces. We then evaluate the performance of this protocol by taking measurements in a real test-bed.